Football Program FUN FACTS!

JOSP said:
Dola Hardin Northern:

Smallest school to win a state championship: They were runner's up in the 2002 DVI Championship losing to Mogadore 27-7, finishing 14-1 on the year. Then, won the state championship in 2004 DVI beating Norwalk St. Paul 20-8, finishing 14-1 on the year. Ironically, they won the state championship but did not win the BVC conference as Findlay Liberty-Benton beat them 35-0 in week 10. I believe their state championship roster had 30 players on it, maybe less at the time of the 2004 state championship.

The head coach at the time was Pete Brunow, who was actually from the Norwalk area and had family playing against him in the state championship game. Brunow coached from 1984 - 2009 compiling a 221 - 70 record and winning 9 BVC championships during that time. Brunow was inducted into the OHSFCA Hall of Fame in 2017.

At the time of this run, there was a player who set a new state record for games started in a career. During his time at Hardin Northern, Michael Ridgeway started in 56 games from the '02 - '05 season. I believe that has since been broken, but am unsure as I can't find information relating to this "record" online. (Someone help me out here)

Another notable alum from Hardin Northern is Dean Pees. Pees started out coaching at Elmwood and then turned to the college level coaching defense at several colleges before becoming the head coach at Kent State from 1998 - 2003. He accepted a job with the New England Patriots as the linebackers coach from 2004 - 2005 and was promoted to Defensive Coordinator from 2006 - 2009. He coached inside linebackers with the Baltimore Ravens from 20010 - 2011 before becoming the Defensive Coordinator there from 2012 - 2017. He moved on to become the Defensive Coordinator of the Tennessee Titans from 2018 - 2019 and he retired in 2019. During his NFL Career he was a two time Super Bowl winning coach, once with the Patriots (Super Bowl XXXIX, 2005) and once with the Ravens (Super Bowl XLVII, 2013).

Hardin Northern fell on tough times due to lack of numbers, going 1 - 29 from 2010 - 2012. In 2013, they played a JV schedule and were removed from the BVC. They fielded a varsity team in 2014, and joined the NWCC in 2015. They have fielded a varsity team since then, and actually returned to the playoffs last year, finishing the season 8-3 overall.

Most of this information was found through maxpreps/google so if anyone more closely related to this community has anything to add I'd appreciate it. One of the great, small Ohio High School Football teams with a rich tradition and a very interesting history.
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Coach Brunow is an Edison alum, which as you hinted, in Norwalk's backyard.

Reflecting to 2004, I was thinking St. Paul was going to nab their 1st Title, but H-N simply got the job done.

Fun fact, and involving St. Paul, their only State Title win is DSJ's only loss in Title Game.
 
Kirtland HC Tiger LaVerde has a 174-17 record through 14 seasons at the school. That means he could go 0-10 for 15 straight years and still have a record above .500. That’s INSANE just to think about.

I’m sure that Coach Goodwin & Coach McSurley of Marion Local and Clinton-Massie have something similar going as well.
 
Kirtland4580 said:
Kirtland HC Tiger LaVerde has a 174-17 record through 14 seasons at the school. That means he could go 0-10 for 15 straight years and still have a record above .500. That’s INSANE just to think about.

I’m sure that Coach Goodwin & Coach McSurley of Marion Local and Clinton-Massie have something similar going as well.
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Tim Goodwin is 252-47 in his career at ML with 80 playoff wins so far :oops: Unbelievable for both coaches and class acts.
 
Insane92 said:
Tim Goodwin is 252-47 in his career at ML with 80 playoff wins so far :oops: Unbelievable for both coaches and class acts.
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As impressive as Goodwin's record is at first glance, when you consider the number of reigning or future State Champions they played just about each and every year it's insane.
 
Insane92 said:
Tim Goodwin is 252-47 in his career at ML with 80 playoff wins so far :oops: Unbelievable for both coaches and class acts.
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Unbelievable is right! By the math I did before, Goodwin could go TWENTY winless seasons and still be above .500. 252 wins in 20 or so years, 80 playoff wins, & 11 state championships. THAT is a HELLUVA resumé.
 
wildcat71 said:
Well history says otherwise. It was originally Barberton Magic. It has for some reason morphed to Magics....
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This is not what I was told many years ago ... the original name was actually “The Magics” ... and the school colors were Brown and White ... the school colors change(to Purple &White) just a few years later and The Magics was shortened to just Magics ... this is what I was told by an old Barberton fan over 40 years ago ... the city’s nickname was “The Magic City” because of it’s exceptional growth in the early 1900’s
 
Mr. Slippery said:
I found a Christian Guenter who kicked in 2002. It's hardly an unusual name for western Ohio, but your other kickers from that time period were a Shawn Stein and a Ryan Staugler.
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That's him! Dude had a leg on him for sure.
I know Shawn pretty well, and the Stauglers are synonymous with the Fort Recovery community.

Super Sleuth Slippy, over here!
 
Vamps will have the history on this but the 2010 Wayne Warriors needed several games to go their way in Week 10 just to grab the eight seed. The miracle happened and they ran the table until they met the St. Edward Eagles in the final. It was a great finals.
 
Bearcat Stadium in Bedford opened September 2, 1994. The Bearcats blanked Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin by the score of 4-0, a baseball-type score.. This was three weeks after the baseball players went on strike
 
Steubenville Big Red Head Coach, Reno Saccoccia, amassed a head turning 391 wins to 71 loses over a still active 35 year stint. He alone can go
0 for 15 for 21 straight years and still retire with a .500% record. Now that is incredible.
Side note: 12 games away from being the winningest coach in Ohio, 14th winningest coach in the USA . Did it at a one public school in
Divisions II, III, IV, III
 
Warrior78 said:
Vamps will have the history on this but the 2010 Wayne Warriors needed several games to go their way in Week 10 just to grab the eight seed. The miracle happened and they ran the table until they met the St. Edward Eagles in the final. It was a great finals.
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You could say the same about Clyde last season in Division IV. They barely snuck in as the #8 seed and ran the table to the state championship. They needed like several games to go their way in Week 10 and it happened.
 
northwest07 said:
You could say the same about Clyde last season in Division IV. They barely snuck in as the #8 seed and ran the table to the state championship. They needed like several games to go their way in Week 10 and it happened.
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That Ottawa Glandorf game was great. OG marched down to the redzone trying to tie it and turned it over late in the 4th quarter. If they scored who knows what would have happened. That game was back and forth the whole time.
 
Kirtland4580 said:
Kirtland HC Tiger LaVerde has a 174-17 record through 14 seasons at the school. That means he could go 0-10 for 15 straight years and still have a record above .500. That’s INSANE just to think about.

I’m sure that Coach Goodwin & Coach McSurley of Marion Local and Clinton-Massie have something similar going as well.
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Impressive! Ditto Goodwin and Reno. Made me think. Massillon could lose every game until 2081 and remain above .500.

Most know of the many Paul Brown innovations but one fun fact that cracks me up is while preparing for the week 10 showdown vs. Canton Mckinley led by Marion Motley (who was abnormally HUGE for back then) he instructed the defense to grab at his ankles and had them train by squeezing tennis balls all week. Lol. Btw and the Tigers shut him down. :)
 
Insane92 said:
That Ottawa Glandorf game was great. OG marched down to the redzone trying to tie it and turned it over late in the 4th quarter. If they scored who knows what would have happened. That game was back and forth the whole time.
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That's a game that's gotta haunt the O-G fans. Playing a 3rd string QB due to injury in the final moments of a Regional Final and losing by a touchdown to a team that eventually wins a state championship has to sting.
 
Clyde was 7th on Saturday morning following its win over Bellevue, but slipped to 8th after the Redmen got second-level points after one of its opponents won that afternoon-something which slipped past me as well.
 
Here's a unique one... Vince Gliatta, who was the QB of Canton Central Catholic's 2000 Division III state championship team, would go on to some fame amongst the younger generation as a contestant on two seasons of MTV's The Challenge.
 
reganaustinjames said:
Here's a unique one... Vince Gliatta, who was the QB of Canton Central Catholic's 2000 Division III state championship team, would go on to some fame amongst the younger generation as a contestant on two seasons of MTV's The Challenge.
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No kidding? He gave Van Wert fits that whole game outside of the pocket.
 
WSAImpact said:
Clyde was 7th on Saturday morning following its win over Bellevue, but slipped to 8th after the Redmen got second-level points after one of its opponents won that afternoon-something which slipped past me as well.
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Correct. University School's win over East Tech enabled Bellevue to leapfrog Clyde.
 
reganaustinjames said:
Here's a unique one... Vince Gliatta, who was the QB of Canton Central Catholic's 2000 Division III state championship team, would go on to some fame amongst the younger generation as a contestant on two seasons of MTV's The Challenge.
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I was waiting for this one. As much as I enjoy the stats and on field stories, I equally (if not more depending on the info.) enjoy hearing external pop-culture life crossings with former players!

Not exactly the same, but kinda similar to when, before she was Lady Gaga, Stefani Germanotta was unknowingly featured on an episode of MTV's Boiling Points.
Stuff like that, but for Ohio HS football.
 
IndianaBanana said:
I was waiting for this one. As much as I enjoy the stats and on field stories, I equally (if not more depending on the info.) enjoy hearing external pop-culture life crossings with former players!

Not exactly the same, but kinda similar to when, before she was Lady Gaga, Stefani Germanotta was unknowingly featured on an episode of MTV's Boiling Points.
Stuff like that, but for Ohio HS football.
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If you like different off the field stories this may interest you.
The QB who lead our team to their fist state title game is featured in this clip from Fox Business and also made the rounds on Fox and Friends, and the Hannitty radio show.
 
thavoice said:
If you like different off the field stories this may interest you.
The QB who lead our team to their fist state title game is featured in this clip from Fox Business and also made the rounds on Fox and Friends, and the Hannitty radio show.
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That was pretty neat, indeed!

Here's one to keep going.
Jordan Thompson, the Parkway grad who played Tight End for the Lions, is now (or was, not sure if it's still on air) a carpenter for While You Were Out on HGTV.
Apparently he's also a pilot. Dudes got a lot goin on... and he's only 31.
 
IndianaBanana said:
That was pretty neat, indeed!

Here's one to keep going.
Jordan Thompson, the Parkway grad who played Tight End for the Lions, is now (or was, not sure if it's still on air) a carpenter for While You Were Out on HGTV.
Apparently he's also a pilot. Dudes got a lot goin on... and he's only 31.
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I think he had an even brighter future in baseball of he had focused.more on that than drinking the football Kool aid, but cannot fault how it turned out with getting into the NFL. Had same thoughts with Keith wenning from Coldwater.
 
thavoice said:
I think he had an even brighter future in baseball of he had focused.more on that than drinking the football Kool aid, but cannot fault how it turned out with getting into the NFL. Had same thoughts with Keith wenning from Coldwater.
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Baseball's a tough sell, man. Same reason why Kyler Murray chose football. You can go to the NFL and be making great money right away, or try baseball, and take bus rides from Paducha to Cedar Rapids making $4,300.
 
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*67 said:
Baseball's a tough sell, man. Same reason why Kyler Murray chose football. You can go to the NFL and be making great money right away, or try baseball, and take bus rides from Paduch to Cedar Rapids making $4,300.
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